defensetech.org Archives - 29 March 2012, Thursday

“My greatest fear,” Clarke says, “is that, rather than having a cyber-Pearl Harbor event, we will instead have this death of a thousand cuts. Where we lose our competitiveness by having all of our research and development stolen by the Chinese. And we never really see the single event...

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U.S. government investigators, using a fictitious company, were able to easily find electronic parts for weapons from China on the Internet and every single item they bought was counterfeit, despite China’s pledge to crack down on fake products. A new report by the congressional Gover...

Assisted in part by the land-based Second Artillery Force , anti-satellite capabilities, and global cyber activities, this A2/AD challenge threatens U.S. naval platforms, but is far more than just a Chinese navy-based threat; some U.S. government experts have called it an “anti-navy ....

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I agree with that statement, however I like the look of the A-6. When I was growing up I didn't like the F-16 because I thought the intake was similar to that of the A-7, but with an elongated, pointier nose…like it made the front of the aircraft look like a fish with a big open mouth...

So remember a few weeks ago when news emerged that Britain was looking at backtracking on its plans to buy the F-35C carrier variant Joint Strike Fighter for its new carriers that are set to be equipped with new electromagnetic catapults and next generation arrestor gear? You know, th...

Retro Vid: Drones Shooting Air-to-Ground Missiles in the ‘70s In case anyone doesn’t already know it, spy drones have been used in war for decades and this video shows one of the America’s first drones launching an air to ground missile. Yup, this 1972 film clip shows C-130-launched B...

So, the E-8 won't get replaced by the cancelled RQ-4 Reaper. Pity. Boeing has "proposed" developing a P-8 for the job, but they're already spending a lot on their own programs, and if the gov't won't be paying for the replacement, there isn't much incentive for them. A report from Def...

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Storing guns on boats offshore really took off as a business last year. Britain — where many of the operators are from — is investigating the legality of the practice, which has received little publicity outside of shipping industry circles. Floating armories have become a viable busi...

All these rumors of a coup in China this week have been good for one thing here at DT, this pic of the what appear to be the PLA’s fairly new Type 05 mobile howitzers painted in digital camouflage. The vehicles pictured are largely believed to not be part of any coup force, they seem ...

So Air Force Space Command boss Gen. William Shelton gave us a tiny bit more insight into the service’s super secret space spycraft, the X-37B, when he said that it’s doing its super secret — and year-long — mission excellently and that there’s no need for a bigger version of it or to...

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Watch this insane video of an AH-64 Apache attack helicopter perform an extremely low pass over a snow-covered U.S. outpost (some sa y it’s FOB Sharana in Paktika Province) in the mountains of Afghanistan before slamming onto the ground narrowly missing some troops, bouncing back into...

According to the tipster who sent these our way, the aircraft lost all fuel out of the left wing — something you’d expect when a giant hole is punched in the wing. This meant that the right wing was full of 15,000-pounds of aviation fuel, a situation that caused the aircraft to tip so...

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Check out this footage of Syrian rebels using an antitank weapon to destroy a Syrian government fighter jet sitting just outside its hardened aircraft shelter. Yup, it looks like the rebels used an antitank missile to hit what looks like a Mig-23 Flogger (maybe it’s a Mig-29 fulcrum o...

Now, some news reports say the Russian’s claim they’ve just sent a Navy tanker to support anti-piracy operations in Middle Eastern waters and that any troops aboard that ship are simply there to protect the tanker’s civilian crew and that there are no Russian counterterror troop in Sy...

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The modification is to the F-22’s Emergency Oxygen System handle, which makes it easier for the pilot to access. Det 1 model makers Floyd Slinker and Terry Waugh designed it. Approximately 200 handles, which cost $47 apiece to manufacture, have been delivered, including spares. The ha...

When you take a photo with your cellphone, the gps coordinates of the location you took the picture is embedded into the image. When you upload said photo onto the internet for all to see, people can pull the location data from that picture. If you think this is just people being para...

To help further improve future shipboard firefighting capability, scientists at the Naval Research Laboratory have formed an interdisciplinary team to develop a humanoid robot that could fight fires on the next generation of combatants. A humanoid-type robot was chosen because it was ...

So uh, yeah. That awkward-looking thing is Boeing’s Phantom Eye high-altitude UAV design doing a 30-knot taxi test at Edwards Air Force Base on March 10. Usually, we bring you clips and pictures of stealthy, jet-powered drones designed to penetrate enemy airspace and drop bombs taking...

I don't think we gave a damn about these weapons cache's. I think we went in to find, secure and recover the reported $60 – $80 BILLION in GOLD BULLION BARS that Ghadaffi had stashed which was his personal NET WORTH. THE TREASURY of Libya is STILL trying to get their nations' money re...

Late last year, senior British military officers, Defense Ministry officials, and other government officials were tricked into becoming Facebook friends with someone masquerading as United States Navy admiral James Stavridis. By doing so, they exposed their own personal information (s...